/ 


AN ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSAL 

FOR 

INDEPENDENT CITIZENSHIP 
FOR WOMEN 

TOGETHER WITH A SUMMARY OF 

The Present Law of Citizenship 
and INaturalization 



ISSUED BY THE 

Committee on American Citizenship 

and the 

Education Committee 

of the 

New York State League of Women Voters 





Prepared by 
Esther Everett Lape 
and 

Elizabeth Fisher Read 


COPYRIGHTED JANUARY 26, I921 

by 

Esther Everett Lape 

and 

Elizabeth Fisher Read 


© CI A608437 


JftN 31 1921 


A* 


/ 


V 


.1^4- 

PART I—INDEPENDENT CITIZENSHIP FOR WOMEN 
1. The Present Law 

As the law stands now in the United States, a married woman has nothing to say 
about her own citizenship. Ujimarried women and women whose husbands have died, 
or whose marriage has been dissolved by divorce, are all independent in the matter 
of their citizenship. They can decide for themselves, just as a man can, what 
country tihey want to be citizens of. (See the section on the citizenship of an 
unmarried woman, on page 12.) 

When a woman marries, however, she loses her independent citizenship, and 
takes wdiatever citizenship her husband has. 

If she is an alien, and marries an American citizen, she becomes a citizen too. 
J his has been the law since 1855. 

If she is an American citizen, and marries an alien, she becomes an alien too. 
This has been tihe law since 1907. 

If the husband decides to change his citizenship, his \Vife has nothing to say 
about whether he shall do so or not; he does as he chooses, and his choice binds 
(her. If he changes his, what he really does is to change theirs, his and hers; she, 
however, cannot even change hers, much less his. 

The Proposed Changes 

The proposed changes amount, in general, merely to ending the control over a 
woman’s citizenship which is now involved in her marriage. They simply mean 
that a woman who marries a man of another nationality could keep her own 
nationality, if she chose; of course she could take his, if she chose, by becoming 
naturalized in his country. There have been various proposals during the past few 
years to reach this end. Two bills, the Rogers and the Johnson bills, have been 
introduced in the present Congress. 

The Rogers bill simply provides that an American woman shall not lose her 
American citizenship by marrying an alien, aiiid that an alien woman shall not obtain 
American citizenship by marrying a citizen. 

The Johnson bill goes into much greater detail. It allows an American woman 
marrying an alien to keep her American citizenship, unless ^he chooses to renounce 
it, provided she continues to live in this country; if she leaves this country and 
lives for two years in her husband’s country, or for five years in any other foreign 
country, she is presumed to have intended to give up her American citizenship. 
An American woman who is not residing here when she marries an alien loses her 
citizenship. An alien woman w(ho marries an American husband does not becchie 
a citizen by the mere fact of the marriage; she must meet the qualifications pro¬ 
vided for naturalization, as if she were an unmarried woman. An alien woman is 
allowed to apply for naturalization, by this bill, even though married; at present 
a married woman cannot apply for it. 

The Johnson bill, as will be seen, makes the American woman’s citizenship 
depend on her residence; whether that provision will be adopted remains to be 
seen. Both bills have the desirable feature of ending the automatic naturalization 


A aiARRIED 
WOMAN" LOSES 
HER INDE¬ 
PENDENT 
CITIZENSHIP 


THE 

PROPOSED LAW 
WOULD ALLOW 
HER TO 
CHOOSE 


8 


HUSBAND AND 
WIFE AT 
COMMON LAW 


A MARRIED 
WOMAN IS 
NOW 
REGARDED AS 
A PERSON 


of alien women on their marriage to a citizen, or on the naturalization of their 
husbands. 

The law finally adopted may contain the provisions of both of these bills, or 
additional provisions. Whatever the final form of the law is, it will allow a womain, 
married as well as unmarried, to determine for herself what nationality she wishes 
to have. 

How the Present Law Came to Exist 

The present law is a part, still surviving, of the old common law tiheory that a 
woman absolutely lost her identity, her very entity, her separate existe.nce, when 
she was married^ By marriage the husband and wife became one person in the 
eyes of the law; her legal entity was supposed to be merged into her husband’s. 
In. order to get around the fact that she was able to do something ror herself 
before slhe was married and after her husband died, the law said that during her 
married life her entity was “suspended” or incorporated and consolidated into that 
of the husband; so that during her married life she was supposed to have no separate 
personality, but only to act through and by him. 

As it is sometimes put, marriage made them one, and he was the one. 

The extent to which this legal fiction was carried simply wiped out a married 
woman’s identity. The personal property sihe owned when they were married 
became his absolutely, and so did anything else belonging to her that could be 
turned into money, such as the rents and profits from any real estate she owned, 
as for instance a farm or a house left her by her father. This personal property became 
his so absolutely that he could leave it by will to some one else, if he liked; 
she was not even sure of getting it back when 'he died. 

If he deeded land to her, or made an agreement to pay her money, the deed and 
the promise were not binding on him, because she was tihe same as himself, and 
he could not make a deed or a promise to himself. 

She could not make a contract even for the benefit of her own real estate. 

If he did not support her, and she lhad to work to support herself and their 
children, her wages belonged to him; he could go and collect them from her 
employer. 

If she were injured in a way that made some one liable for damages, she could 
not bring the suit; she and her husband brought it together, and the damages 
belonged to tlhe husband. 

He alone had the right to appoint a guardian for their children; he could even 
say in his will who should be the guardian of their unborn child. 

In short, the husband alone thought, and acted, and spoke for the whole social 
unit known as the family. 

The Gradual Change in This Situation 

As time went on, however, this situation changed; it became apparent that the 
whole scheme simply did not fit the facts of life. Gradually women have won, 
in most countries, and in most states of the United States, the rigiht to control 
and manage their own property, to transfer or sell it, or to leave it by will to whoever 
they desire. They have won the right to engage in most kinds of business and 
to follow most occupations and professions, and to control their own earnings. 
In most states they have won an equal right of guardianship over their children. 


4 


In other words, the world has come to recognize that the married woman is a 
person, even if she is married, and that she has an individuality too; it is admitted 
that she can think and act for herself. And the victory for equal suffrage is at 
last an admission that she has a right to speak for herself. 

The married woman may choose her work, her religion, her political party now. 
She has acquired an independent existence, except so far as citizenship is concerned; 
as to that, the husband and wife are still one; her identity is still lost, at marriage, 
so fai as citizcjiship is concerned. T. his is what the movement for independent citi¬ 
zenship aims to change. 

2. The Objections to the Present Situation 

There are two great reasons why the present situation, depriving a married 
woman of her freedom of dhoice in citizenship, should be changed. 

The First Reason: The Injustice to Women 

The first reason for changing the present law is the injustice involved in it 
to millions of women, admittedly competent to determine the great questions of 
life. It is acknowledged that they can choose their husbands, can choose their 
form of religion, can bring children into the world and train their bodies and 
their souls^ It is admitted that they can and do earn tiheir living, by hundreds 
of thousands—not only their own living, but that of tiheir children, or their old 
parents, or their dependent brothers and sisters. 

Simply as a matter of human dignity, and of elemental justice, women are 
entitled to independent citizenship. 

The Second Reason: The Admission to Citizenship of Unqualified Women 

One very undesirable result of the present Ian- is that thousands of unqualified 
persons are admitted to American citizenship. 

The woman’s husband, in order to be naturalized, has to meet the tests imposed 
by the naturalization law, as follows: he has to have been a resident for five years; 
he must be able to read and write English; he must have a good character; he 
must show that he understands the principles of the Constitution and of our govern¬ 
ment ; and he must take the oath of allegiance. 

ilis wife, however, can become a citizen without meeting any of tlhese tests. ' 

"Ehe exact words of the law are as follows: 

“Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the 
United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a 
citizen.” 

The words, “who might herself be lawfully naturalized,” have been construed over 
and over again by various distinguished Attorney Generals and by the United States 
Supreme Court in the sixty years that this law has been on our statute books. It has 
been uniformly Iheld that this law does not require that the wife shall personally 
possess the qualifications for citizenship that she would have to possess in order to be¬ 
come a citizen if she were an unmarried w^oman, or that her husband has to have. 
All that this law requires is that she be a member of one of the races that may law¬ 
fully be naturalized, i. e., tlhat she be not a member of one of the excluded races; 
that is, she must be a free white woman or a woman of African nativity or descent, 
and not a Chinese or Japanese woman. 


EXCEPT IN 
CITIZENSHIP 


INJUSTICE TO 
WOMEN IN 
PRESENT LAW 


CITIZENS BY 
MARRLAGE 
NEED NOT 
MEET QUALI¬ 
FICATIONS FOR 
CITIZENSHIP 


NEED NOT BE 
OF age, or a 
RESIDENT FOR 
FIVE YEARS 


DOES NOT 
TAKE OATH 
AND NEED 
NOT BE OF 
GOOD 
CHARACTER 


The wife may become a citizen when she is not twenty-one years of age. 

She becomes a citizen even when she has not been a resident here for five years. 

She may become a citizen even though she never comes to this country at all, or 
comes'only to settle Iher husband’s estate after his death. There is some difference 
of opinion on this last point; interpretations or rulings made in recent years by Secre¬ 
taries of State tend to moderate somewhat the decisions in the recorded cases, all of 
which hold flatly that the wife of a citizen becomes a citizen when Ihe does, even 
through she does not come to the United States till after his death. 

She becomes a citizen witihout taking the oath of allegiance. And she does not 
even have to satisfy the requirement of good character; she becomes a citizen when 
she marries a citizen, even if her character is known to be bad. Before 1917 there 
was more than one case where a woman about to be deported as a prostitute was able 
to evade it by marrying a citizen, thus becoming a citizen too. The Immigration 
Act passed on February 5, 1917, however, contained a provision to the effect that 
when a woman who is liable to exclusion or to deportation from the United States 
for acts of sexual immorality, marries an American citizen after she has been arrested 
or after sihe has committed the acts that made her liable to deportation, the marriage 
does not make the woman an American citizen. 

Of course many alien women who have become citizens by marrying a citizen, with¬ 
out proving that they possess the qualifications for citizenship, could have proved it, 
if they had been asked to. iVlany thousands, however, could not have proved it. it 
is not so much their admission to citizenship that is objectionable, as it is the right 
they have, as citizens, to vote. As citizens they have, except in the few states that 
have an educational qualification for voters, the right to vote on all questions. The 
policies of this country should not be framed and its laws should not be determined 
by persons not personally able to meet the moderate requirements for naturalization. 


Husbands Without Nationality 

SOME 111 certain cases a man has no right to citizenship in any country. A German 
HusBANDj subject, for example, who lived outside of Germany for ten years, lost his citizenship 
NATIONALITY ‘ *' nationality. Suppose an American woman marries a German who has thus lost his 
nationality: sIhe loses her American nationality by the marriage; what nationality 
does she get? 

Take another case: the child born abroad of an American father who has ever 
lived (the father) in the United States is an American citizen; but if the father never 
has lived here the child is not a citizen. Suppose the child of a father who ncs^t r 
lived here is born in a country like Russia, which does not give citizenship, as we do, 
to all persons born in that country. The child is not an American citizen, and 
not a Russian subject; he has no nationality. Suppose an American girl marries 
him; she loses her American citizenship; what citizenship does she get? 


Husbands Whose Country Does Not Give the Wife His Citizenship 

SOME It is not every country that gives its .nationality or citizenship to a woman merely 
COUNTRIES because she marries one of its subjects or citizens. This fact is so well recognized in 

DO NOT GIVE . . ... ...... . ^ 

THE WIFE Other countries that special provision is made for it in the citizenship laws In France, 
CITIZENSHIP j^eigfum, Italy, Honduras, IMexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Venezuela, the law 
providing that a woman citizen wfio marries an alien loses her native citizenship par- 


6 


ticularly spyecifies that this happens only if the law of the husband’s country grants his 
citizenship to her. 

But the United States law makes no such distinction: the American woman loses 
her own nationality, whether she gets her husband’s or not. 

Other Provisions of Laws of Other Countries 

A woman marrying an alien does not lose her nationality unless she leaves fher 
native land, in Ecuador and Guatemala. 

Marriage with an alie.n had no effect on the nationality of a British woman until 
1870; until then a British woman who married an alien kept her British nationality, 
no matter whether she remained in England or not. In 1870, in a general revision 
of the law of nationality, a provision was inserted requiring her to take her husband’s 
nationality. This law has beeji and is being vigorously attacked. Another act passed 
in 1914 in Great Britain recognizes to some extent the wife’s right to control her 
nationality in the provision requiring her consent to a change of nationality after 
the marriage. 

3. Answers to the Objections to Independent Citizenship 

Let us look at the objections to independent citizenship. 

To begin with, people no longer claim that a woman has not enough intelligence 
to decide what she wants her citizenship to be. The law allows an unmarried woman 
who is of age to become naturalized, on exactly the same terms as a man. If the wo¬ 
man’s husband dies, or if she is divorced, she again becomes entitled to become natural¬ 
ized. It is only during the time when she is her husband’s wife that she cannot act 
for herself in the matter of citizenship. 

Now of course it cannot be believed that there is anything about the marriage rela¬ 
tion which makes a woman who was intelligent before she was married, and is intelli¬ 
gent after tihe marriage is over, unintelligent while the marriage lasts. Is there some 
other reason, inherent in the marriage relation, which makes it necessary for the wife t^ 
abrogate and abdicate her individuality during that time? Let us see whether any of 
the usual objections to independent citizenship contains or involves any such reason. 

The Objection of Divided Citizenship Within a Family 

One objection frequently urged against independent citizenship for married women 
is that it would result in divided citizenship within the home, which is alleged to be 
an intolerable situation. 

The answer to this objection is that we have divided citizenship now, in thousands 
and hundreds of thousands of homes in this country, and yet the roofs stay on the 
houses. The situation does not appear to be intolerable. Wheaiever a child is born in 
this country of foreign born parents who have not been naturalized here, another case of 
divided citizenship arises, for such a child is an American citizen, though its parents 
are aliens. Yet they live on peaceably, under the same roof, and we do not feel that wo 
are creating intolerable situations by the thousand every day by giving such a dhild 
citizenship. It certainly is no worse to have the father and mother different in 
citizenship than to have the parents and the dhildren different; and we pride ourselves 
on giving American citizenship to these children. 

And ^^4ien those native born children of foreign born parents were called in the 
draft, as citizens, the call was honored by parents and children alike. Even where 
there was divided citizenship, the allegiance was not divided. 


DIVIDED CITI¬ 
ZENSHIP IS 
NOT A 
SERIOUS 
OBJECTION 


7 


MOST 
PROPERTY 
RIGHTS 
DO NOT 
DEPEND ON 
CITIZENSHIP 


Persons making this objection overlook the tact that it is not divided citizenship, 
but divided sympathy, that makes a situation intolerable. If an American citizen who 
believes that England should rule Ireland with an iron hand marries an Irish girl who 
sympathizes with the Sinn Fein, it will not bring them together to confer Ihis citizenship 
upon her; merely pasting the same label on them docs not make them alike. If they 
are divided in sympatliy, they arc divided, even if tiheir citizenship is the same; and 
if they are in sympathy, they are in sympathy, even if their citizenship is different. 

The Objection that there Would Be Confusion about Property 

It is sometimes alleged that if the husband and wife were to differ in citizenship, 
great confusion would arise in matters relating to property. 

The answer to this question is that in most cases the control of property does not 
depend on the citizenship of the owners or the claimants. It usually depends on the 
location of the property or on the domicile, i. e., the residence, of the OMTiers. 

A few illustrations will make this clear. 

If it is a question of a piece of land in New York State, for example, it is the law 
of New York State that controls tihe disposition of that property; it does not matter 
whether the land belongs to a British subject or to an American citizen, the law of 
New York State that governs it is the same. 

If it is a question of personal property, as for instance the money in a savings bank 
In Chicago belonging to a German subject formerly living in Chicago who was run over 
and killed by a truck, the law that applies to that money is just the same as if he had 
been an American citizen. Suppose there are no heirs in Illinois: the public adminis¬ 
trator takes charge of the estate, and administers it according to the law of Illinois, 
dealing out the shares of it in exactly the same way to alien heirs living in New York 
and citizen heirs living in Massachusetts. 

d'he fact is that aliens and citizens now have so nearly the same rights in property 
matters that very little depends on citizenship, much less than people suppose; almost 
everything depends on the location of the property or on the residence, or,to use the 
legal term, the domicile of the owners. A person’s domicile is the place where Ihe or she 
has set up his residence, with the intention of remaining there permanently; it is the 
place one tihinks of as one’s permanent home, even though one may be absent from it 
at times. It is a person’s domicile that controls what the French call a person’s civil 
status; his citizenship controls his political status. But most of the affairs of life are 
matters that come within the civil status; matters like property, and wills, and mar¬ 
riage, and divorce, and guardianship, all depend on a person’s civil status. 

What the Wife Chooses 

It is sometimes urged that the woman who marries an alien husband must have 
chosen deliberately to become an alien, because she married one. 

One writer says that by marrying a foreigner the woman shows a desire to change 
her .nationality: “This desire is clearly manifested by the fact itself of marriage; the 
woman, who is free not to marry, knows what she incurs by marrying.” 

The answer to this is that she did not choose his citizenship, she chose him. Na¬ 
tionality is not usually the first thing they are thinking about. 

There is no more reason why her choice of an alien husband should be assumed to 
imply that she wants to change her nationality, than why his choice of her should 
imply that he wants to change his. 


8 


PART II~THE LAW ABOUT CITIZENSHIP IN THE UNITED STATES 


A Few General Facts About Citizenship 

A person can be a citizen of only one country at a time. 

Usually a person is a citizen or subject of the country in which he (or she) 
was born. 

A person keeps the citizenship he (or she) gets at birth, no matter if he goes 
to live in another country, unless he goes through the procedure of becoming 
a citizen of that other country. An alien cannot become an American citizen 
by merely living in the United States, even if he lives here 50 years. 

A person may change his citizenship if he desires. His old country may not 
be willing to let him go, but in the United States we believe that a person 
has the inalienable light to change his allegiance if he desires. 

A child has the same citizenship that its parents have, except a child born in 
the United States whose parents are aliens. That child is a citizen, 
although its parents are not. If the parents’ citizenship changes, while the 
child is a minor, the child’s citizenship changes, too. 

A married woman has, at present, the same citizenship as her husband., (See p. 12) 

Who Are Citizens of the United States 

There are only two ways of becoming a citizen of the United States: 

1. by birth; and 

2. by naturalization. 

It is sometimes said that there is a third way in which an alien woman 
may become a citizen, i. e., by marriage with a citizen. This is also called 
a form of citizenship by naturalization. 

Citizenship by Birth 

Any person born in the United States is a citizen, whether his or her parents 
were citizens or not. Every person born on American soil possesses the fullest 
possible rights of American citizenship. 

For example, the child of Russian or Armenian refugees, born an hour 
after the parents land in New York from Ellis Island, is as much an American 
citizen as a child whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower. Any one 

born on American soil is an American. 

This has been the law of the United States from the very start. We 
regard this as such a fundamental principle that we apply it even in the 

case of the child of parents that we do not allow to be naturalized; Chinese 

men or women, for instance, cannot become American citizens; and yet the 
child of a Chinese man and woman is an American, if it was born here. 

Certain countries in Europe and Asia have a different law on this point, 
and claim that if their subjects or citizens come over here and have a child 
born before they are naturalized, while they are still subjects of tiheir old 


ONLY TWO 
WAYS OF 
ACQUIRING 
CITIZENSHIP 


CITIZENSHIP 
BY BIRTH 


9 


EXCEPTIONS 
TO THIS LAW 


NEGROES 
WERE EX¬ 
CEPTED TILL 
I4TH AMEND¬ 
MENT WAS 
PASSED 


INDIANS STILL 
EXCLUDED; 
CERTAIN 
INDIANS 
ADMITTED 


EXCEPTIONS : 
PERSONS NOT 
SUBJECT TO 
THE JURIS¬ 
DICTION OF 
THE UNITED 
STATES 


country, that child is a subject, too. The United States, however, does not 
recognize that claim, and insists that the child is an American citizen if it was 
born on American soil, no matter of what country its parents are citizens or 
subjects. 

Exceptions to this Law 

Two groups of persons born in the United States and entirely subject to 
its jurisdiction have been regarded as exceptions to the law that birth here confers 
citizenship. These two groups are negroes and Indians. Negroes born here 
now become citizens automatically by birth, but Indians do not. 

IVIembers of the black race were regarded as exceptions to the law tlhat birth here 
confers citizenship until the Fourteenth Amendment to the constitution of the United 
States was ratified by the States in 1868. This amendment says: 

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein 
they reside.” 

The main object of the first clause in this amendment was to settle the question of 
the citizenship of free negroes, about which there had been a difference of opinion i?i 
the country and in the court. The Dred Scott case, which was decided shortly before 
the Civil War, declared that persons brought to this country as slaves, and their 
descendants, were not citizens, and were not capable of becoming citizens. The Four¬ 
teenth Amendment put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black, and whether 
formerly slaves or not, who are born or naturalized in the United States, and who owe 
no allegiance to any foreign power, are citizens of this country. 

Indians were also once entirely excluded from the benefits of this law. On Febru¬ 
ary 8, 1887, Ihowever, a law was passed declaring that those Indians that were born 
within the territorial limits of the United States and who had had land allotted to them 
personally and had given up their tribal life and had taken up a separate residence and 
adopted the habits of civilized life, were citizens of the United States. Indians that 
do not comply with these qualifications are still excluded from citizenship, although 
born in this country. 

There are three other exceptions to this law, consisting of persons born within bhe 
territory of the United States, but not subject to its jurisdiction. These three excep¬ 
tions are: 

1. The childreji of foreign ambassadors representing their country in the United 
States; 

2. The children of alien parents born on public vessels lying in American ports; 

3. The children of alien enemies in hostile occupation of American territory. 

For example, if a child is born to a Japanese ambassador while he is in this c«'»untry,, 

the child is a Japanese subject, not an American citizen. 

Similarly, the child of an English sea captain and his wife is a British subject, al¬ 
though born on their vessel while it is lying in New York harbor. 

Also, the children born in New York City to persons belonging to the British forces 
who held the city during the Revolutionary War were British subjects, not American 
citizens. 

It is obvious that the same reason exists for all three of these exceptions. The am¬ 
bassador, for example, is supposed to carry his country about with him, and to be 


10 


still a part of it, although actually within the country to which he has been sent to 
represent his own; the place where he sets up his ambassy is regarded as foreign, not 
American, soil. 

Citizenship by Naturalization 

The second way of becoming a citizen of the United States is by naturalization. 
Naturalization is merely the act of being adopted into a nation; it is similar, only in 
a larger sense, to being adopted into a family. The underlying idea is the same. 

There are three waj^s by which a person may become a citizen by naturalization: 

1. The first way is by taking out naturalization papers for oneself. 

2. The second way—since a married woman takes her husband’s citizenship—is by 
marrying a citizen^ 

3. The third way—since a child’s citizenship is usually the same as its parents’—is 
through the naturalization of the child’s father or mother. 

The procedure of naturalization is described in detail in the latter part of this 
pamphlet. 

The Rig’ht to Chang'e One’s Allegiance 

The United States maintains that a citizen or a subject of a country has the right 
to give up his allegiance to t!hat country, if he desires, and attach himself to some other 
country the ideals and policies of which seem more just and more desirable to him. We 
believe that the mere fact that a person was born on a certain spot of earth does not 
entail on him the obligation to remain attached to it throughout his entire life; and we 
believe that he has the right to make this change, whether his old government agrees 
to it or not. Some Continental countries do not agree to this, and refuse to recognize 
any such change to which tihey have not previously consented; but we insist in this 
country that a person has the right to change his allegiance if he desires. 

There was so much doubt about this point at one time that a law was finally passed 
by Congress in 1868 stating that tihis right to expatriate oneself is “a natural and 
inherent right of all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the rights of life, liberty 
and the pursuits of happiness.” Any restriction on this right, or any questioning of it, 
was declared “inconsistent with the fundamental principles of the Republic.” 

The law of the United States therefore permits any of its citizens that desire to 
leave it to do so; and when a citizen of some other country applies for citizenship here 
we do not ask him whether he has obtained the permission of his former sovereign to 
make tihe change; we assume that he has the natural right to make it, and does not need 
to ask permission. 

Who May Be Naturalized 

Only two classes of persons may be naturalized in the United States: 

1. Free white persons; and 

2. Persons of African nativity and descent. 

In other words, only members of the white and black races may be naturalized. 

The yellow races are excluded from naturalization. The naturalization of Chinese 
is specifically prohibited. Japanese are also excluded, although there is no statute spe¬ 
cifically prohibiting their naturalization. 

It has not been altogether settled wlhich races are white and which are yellow. Mem¬ 
bers of various races living in India and other Asiatic countries have recently applied 
for naturalization on the ground that they are Caucasians, and not yellow. The pres- 


CITIZENS BY 

NATURALI- 

Z.\TIOK 


THE RIGHT 
OF EXPATRIA¬ 
TION 


"‘a natural 

AND INHER¬ 
ENT right” 


ONLY white 
AND BLACK 
RACES MAY BE 
NATURALIZED 


CHINESE AND 

JAPANESE 

EXCLUDED 


CERTAIN 

ASIATICS 

ADMITTED 


11 


A SINGLE 
WOMAN CAN 
CHANGE HER 
OWN 
CITIZENSHIP 


A MARRIED 
WOMAN 
TAKES HER 

husband’s 

CITIZENSHIP 


ent tendency is to consider that some of these races are white. Hindus, Parsees, and 
members of the Armenian and Syrian people have been admitted to citizenship. 
Filippinos are excluded as belongings to the yellow race. 

Some Chinese, Japanese and Filippinos wlho were in the service during the war applied 
for naturalization under the law passed during the war to facilitate the naturalization 
of aliens in the service. They are not excluded from naturalization, by the terms of 
this law. It has not been settled whether these members of races excluded from citizen¬ 
ship can be naturalized or .not; some courts said that if they were good enough to 
fight for this country they were good enough to be citizens of it, and admitted them; 
other courts said that as they belonged to the excluded races, they were not admis¬ 
sible, even though in the service. 

For the law of naturalization, including the various steps in the process of becoming 
naturalized, see Part III, beginning on page 19. 

The Citizenship of Women 

The citizenship of an adult woman depends upon whether she is single or married, 
since a married woman takes her husband’s citizenship. 

The Citizenship of an Unmarried Woman 

A woman becomes a citizen by birtih here, just as a man does. 

An unmarried woman has whatever citizenship she was born with, unless her parents 
or guardians changed it for her before she came of age, or unless she has changed it 
herself after coming of age. 

After she comes of age—i. e., is twenty-one years old—she can change it for Iherself, 
in exactly the same way and on exactly the same terms that a man can. She may be 
naturalized in her own name and her own right if she can meet the requirements for 
naturalization, which are: 

1. Five years’ residence in the United States and one year in the state where she 
applies. 

2. Ability to speak English a.nd sign her name. 

3. Good character. 

4. Understanding of the principles of the government of the United States. 

5. Willingness to take the oath of allegiance. 

She goes through precisely the same procedure as a man, i. e., the regular naturaliza¬ 
tion procedure, outlined in the latter part of this pamphlet. 

The Citizenship of a Married Woman 

The citizenship of a married woman is the same as her husband’s. When she mar¬ 
ries him, she loses her own and takes his, if they are different; and if his changes while 
they are married, hers changes too. 

If she is a citizen and marries an alien, she loses her American citizenship and be¬ 
comes an alien too, automatically and instantly, without doing anything except get 
married. 

If she is an alien and marries a citizen, she ceases to be an alien and becomes a citi¬ 
zen, instantly and automatically, without doing anything except get married. 

If she is an alien and marries an alien who afterward becomes a naturalized citizen 
while they are married, she becomes a citizen too, at the moment when he does. 

Her husband, in order to be naturalized, has to meet the tests mentioned above; 


12 


he has to have been a resident for five years, must be able to read and write English, 
must have a good character, must show that he understands the principles of the con¬ 
stitution and of our government, and must take the oath of allegiance. 

His wife, however, can become a citizen without meeting any of these tests. 

The exact words of the law are as follows: 

“Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the 
United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed 
a citizen.” 


A CITIZEN BY 
MARRIAGE 
NEED NOT 
MEET QUALI¬ 
FICATIONS FOR 
CITIZENSHIP 


The words, “who might Iherself be lawfully naturalized,” have been construed sev¬ 
eral times by various distinguished Attorney General and Justices of the United States 
Supreme Court in the sixty years that this law has been on our statute books. It 
has been uniformly held that this law does not require that the wife shall personally 
possess the qualifications for citizenship that she would have to possess in order to be¬ 
come a citizen if she were an unmarried woman, or that her husband has to have. 
All that this law requires is that she be a member of one of tlhe races that may lawfully 
be naturalized, i. e., that she be not a' member of one of the excluded races; that is, 
she must be a free white woman or a woman of African nativity or descent, and not a 
Chinese or Japanese woman. 

The wife may become a citizen when she is not twentj^-one years of age. 

She may become a citizen w!hen she has not been a resident here for the required 
five years. 

She may even become a citizen though she never comes to this country at all, or 
comes only to settle her husband’s estate after !his death. There is some difference of 
opinion o>n this last point; interpretations or rulings made in recent years by Secretaries 
of State tend to moderate somewhat the decisions in the recorded cases, all of which 
hold flatly that the wife of a citizen becomes a citizen when he does, even though she 
does not come to the United States till after his death. 

She becomes a citizen witihout taking the oath of allegiance. 

And she does not even have to satisfy the requirement of good character; she becomes 
a citizen when she marriess a citizen, even if her character is bad. Before 
1917 there was more than one case where a woman about to be deported as a prostitute 
was able to evade it by marrying a citizen, thus becoming a citizen too. The Immigra¬ 
tion Act, passed o.n February 5, 1917, however, contained a provision to the effect 
that when a woman who is liable to exclusion or to deportation from the United 
States for acts of sexual immorality, marries an American citizen after she has been ar¬ 
rested or after she has committed the acts that make her liable to deportation, the mar¬ 
riage shall not make the woman an American citizen. Except in this one set of cir¬ 
cumstances, however, a woman of bad character may become a citizen by marrying 


SHE NEED 
NOT BE OF 
AGE, OR A 
CITIZEN FOR 
FIVE YEARS 


SHE NEED 
NOT TAKE 
OATH OF 
ALLEGIANCE 
OR BE OF GOOD 
CHARACTER 


a citizen. 


A deserted wife is still a married woman, no matter for ho\v long she has been de¬ 
serted. She cannot change her citizenship for herself while her husband is living, 
unless she obtains a divorce from him. Though deserted, she is legally his wife and 
has whatever citizenship he has, though she may not know where he is or what fhis 
citizenship may have become. 

A woman who has become a citizen by marriage dues not lose tihat citizenship by 
divorce. It may seem odd that she is allow^ed to keep after the marriage relation ends 


DESERTED 

WIVES 


CITIZENSHIP 
OF DIVORCED 
WOMEN 


13 


WIDOWED CIT¬ 
IZEN BY 
MARRIAGE 
MAY RETAIN 
OR RENOUNCE 
NEW CITI¬ 
ZENSHIP 


AMERICAN 
WOMAN 
MARRIED TO 
AN ALIEN 
HAS SIMILAR 
CHOICE 


A MARRIED 
WOMAN 
CANNOT BE 
NATURALIZED 
IN HER OWN 
NAME 


A WIDOW 
MAY BE 
NATURALIZED 


OR MAY 
COMPLETE 
PROCESS HER 
HUSBAND 
BEGAN 


A CHILD MAY 
BE A CITIZEN 
IN TWO WAYS 


something that she obtained only by that relatio.n ;■ but she has often built up personal 
and property rights that would be injured if she were placed back in her old situation 
as an alien. Tlhe feeling is that there can be no such thing, in American citizenship, as 
a qualified or limited right to citizenship; there can be no such thing as a restricted 
citizenship; once conferred upon a person, it lasts as long as that person lives, unless 
the person voluntarily renounces it, by becoming a citizen of some other country, either 
by naturalization proceedings, or by marriage to an alien. 

A citizen by marriage may choose when her husband dies between keeping her new 
citizenship and resuming her original one. She may do whichever she likes. 

If she happens to be living in the United States when the marriage relation ends, 
she is assumed to keep her American citizenship if she continues to live here, unless she 
formally renounces it before a court that has jurisdiction to naturalize aliens. She 
retains it, however, unless she does so renounce it. If sbe is living abroad at the 
time, she may retain her American citizenship by going before a United States consul 
within one year and registering as a citizen. 

An American woman who has lost her American citizenship by marrying an alien 
has a similar right either to keep her new citizenship, or to resume her former one, 
wfhen the marriage relation ends. 

If she is living in the United States at the time when the marriage relation ends, 
the only thing she needs to do, to regain her American citizenship, is to continue to 
live here. If she is living abroad at the time, she may regain it either by returning 
to reside in tlhe United States, or, if she wishes to continue to live in Europe, by regis¬ 
tering as an American citizen with an American consul within one year. 

The Naturalization of a Married Woman 

From what has been said about a married woman s taking her husband’s citizenship, 
it follows that a married woman cannot apply for naturalization in her own name 
and her own right. If her husband neglects or refuses to become naturalized, there is 
nothing tlhat she can do. This is the case, as mentioned before, with a deserted wife 
as well. 

The Naturalization of a Widow or a Divorced Woman 

After the marriage relation ends, by divorce, or by the death of the husbaiiid, the 
woman is of course in the same position as a single woman, so far as naturalization is 
concerned, and may apply to be naturalized in the customary manner. 

When the husband has taken the first steps toward being naturalized, i. e., has 
declared Ihis intention to become a citizen of the United States, but has died before 
he has completed the process, his widow may take up the process where he left off 
and go through the remaining steps, without repeating the first one of declaring her 
intention. His minor children may also do this, wlhen they become old enough. And 
even a stepchild may take advantage of his stepfather’s declaration. The same thing 
holds good when the husband becomes insane after making his declaration. 

The Citizenship of Children 

A child may become a citizen of the United States i.n two ways: 

1. By birth ; or 

2. By tlhe naturalization of the persons upon whom the child’s citizenship depends. 


14 


Citizenship by Birth 

As previously stated, a child that was born here is a citizen, no matter whether gy birth 
its parents were citizens or not. 

This is the invariable rule of the United States. It does not seem right to us that 
the long arm of Russia or Germany or Turkey should be able to reach and claim as a 
subject a child born on American soil. 

A child, of course, cannot become a naturalized citizen in its own right. So long 
as it is under twenty-one, only its parents can act for it. A minor may make his or 
her declaration of intention to become a citizen, after reaching the age of 18 years; 
but he cannot file his petition for admission to citizenship until after he has passed 
his twenty-first birthday. The declaration of intention does not change his citizenship^ 

Citizenship of Children by Naturalization of Parents 

When a man becomes a naturalized citizen, however, his minor children or by the 
who are living here become citizens too. If their father has died and it is their 
mother that is naturalized, the same thing holds good; the children are naturalized, too. parents 

And even if their mother does not take out naturalization papers herself, 
but marries for her second husband a man who is a citizen, then all her children 
who are under twenty-one and are living here become citizens, too. 

Or if she is married again to a man who is not a citizen, but who becomes 
a citizen afterward, all of her dhildren who are under twenty-one and are living 
here when he becomes a citizen are citizens too. They are citizens because 
their mother is one, and she is one because her husband is. 

It must be noted carefully, however, that there are two limitations on the 
working of this rule that the child becomes naturalized when its parent does. 

One is, that the child must be under twenty-one when the parent is naturalized; 
and the other is that the child must become a resident of this country before it is 
twenty-one. 

A few examples will make this clear: 

1. Maria B. was born in Italy. When she was five years old her parents 
came to this country, bringing her along. When she was fifteen her father 
was naturalized; Maria is a citizen. 

2. Tessie was brought over when she was ten; her father was naturalized 
when she was twenty-two; she is not a citizen. 

3. Lucia’s parents did not bring her with them, but left her with an aunt. 

Her father was naturalized when she was fifteen^ She came over 
to live when she was eighteen; she is a citizen. 

4. Sonia’s father was naturalized when she was fifteen, but she did not 
come over till she was twenty-two; she is not a citizen. 

5. Rachel was living here with her parents. Her father died when she 
was twelve. Her mother took out naturalization papers when Rachel was 
twenty; Rachel is a citizen. 

6. Sadie’s father died when she was twelve, when Sadie was living here 
with them. When Sadie was twenty, her mother married again, this time to a 
citizen; Sadie is a citizen. 

7. Gretchen’s mother was married to a citizen, but not until Gretchen 
was twenty-two; Gretchen is not a citizen. 


15 


WHEN SUCH 
A CHILD 
BECOMES A 
“resident’' 


ADOPTION 
DOES NOT 
CONFER 
CITIZENSHIP 


WHAT SUCH 
A CHILD 
MUST DO TO 
KEEP HIS 
CITIZENSHIP 


CITIZENSHIP 
MAY BE LOST 
BY RETURN TO 
NATIVE 
COUNTRY TO 
LIVE 


8. Bella’s father died; her mother was married again, when Bella was 
fifteen, to a man who was not a citizen but who became one when 
Bella was twenty; she is a citizen. 

9. Louisa was left behind in Italy. Her father died, her mother 
married a man who was not a citizen. Louisa’s aunt died, and Louisa 
was sent over to live with her mother. She arrived Ihere when she was 
twenty years and eleven months old. The week after she landed her step¬ 
father became a citizen; Louisa is a citizen too. 

It must be noticed, in this connection, that as a minor child of a naturalized 
father or mother is not a citizen until it actually becomes a resident here, tihe 
point at which it becomes regarded as a resident is important. Its importance 
lies in this, that if there is anything the matter with the child, so that it cannot 
pass the immigration authorities, it has not the right of the citizen to land, 
and may therefore be excluded, even though its father and mother and sisters 
and brothers, all resident here, may be citizens. The child is not a citizen 
until it is a resident, and therefore anything that prevents it from becoming 
a resident, from entering the country at all, also prevents it from ever claim¬ 
ing citizenship through its parents’ citizenship. 

A child who is adopted by citizens, or by aliens who subsequently become 
citizens, does not obtain citizenship; it remains an alien. 

The Citizenship of Children Bom Abroad Whose Fathers Are American 

Citizens 

A child who was born abroad but whose father is an American citizen is a 
citizen too, provided his father has ever been a resident of the United States. 
If the father never lived here, the child is not an American citizen, even 
though his fatlher is. 

For example: An American citizen might like England or France so well that 
he never resided in this country at all, but always in France or England. In 

such a case, his son, born in Europe, is not a citizen, though his father is. 

If his father had ever resided in the United States, however, and only had 

lived in England or France for a period of years, for business reasons, or for 
his health, or because he liked it better, or for any other reason, the child, 
though born abroad, would be an American citizen. 

This law was passed in order to protect the American citizenship of children 
of Americans wlho have reason to be living abroad, while making it impossible 
for American citizenship to be perpetuated indefinitely by persons never living 
in this country. 

In order to continue to receive the protection of this country while continuing 
to reside away from the United States, sudh a child must go to an American 

consulate after he is eighteen years old and record his intention to become a resident 

of this country and to remain a citizen of it; and when he is twenty-one he must 
take the oath of allegiance to tlhe United States. 

How a Naturalized Citizen May Lose His New Citizenship 

A man who comes here and takes out naturalization papers is supposed to do so 
because he wishes to live here and be a citizen. It was not intended by Congress 

16 


that we should give American citizenship to aliens who mean to go back to 
their old country and live there, while still claiming the protection from this 
country to which their American citizenship would entitle them. 

In order to prevent such an abuse of our naturalization privileges, the law 
now stipulates that a naturalized citizen runs the risk of losing his newly acquired 
citizenship if he goes back to his old country and lives there for two yeai's, 
or if he goes to any other country and lives there for five years. In such a case, 
it is presumed that he means to give up his American citizenship. He can 
overcome this presumption against him, however, by going to a diplomatic or 
consular representative of the United States and presenting satisfactory evidence 
that explains why he has been away from the United States for so long. If he can 
show that he did not desire to give up his American citizenship, nor to use it 
as a cloak and take advantage of it, then he does not lose it. 

Naturalization of Alien Enemies During War 

Alien enemies cannot be naturalized during war. 

This is the general law everywhere. The way it was stated in the United 
States law in force from 1802 till 1918 was that no alien who is a native citizen 
or subject or denizen of any country with which the United States is at war at the 
time of his application may be admitted to citizenship. 

During the recent war there was a good deal of difference of opinion about 
the meaning of the words “at the time of his application.” It was at first held 
that the words referred to the filing of the petition for admission to citizenship. 
Consequently, if a ^German enemy alien had filed his petition before war was 
declared between the United States and Germany, he was held to be entitled 
t(. be naturalized when Ihis petition was reached, even though the two countries 
were at war by that time. This position was followed by several courts. Other 
courts took the position that the “time of his application” meant when he came 
upon open court for his hearing on the petition, and that it was not enough to have 
filed the petition while we were at peace. 

In May, 1918 an act was passed changing tlhis la^^' by providing that no alien 
could have his petition called for a hearing except on ninety days notice to 
the commissioner of naturalization, who might object to the hearing and have it 
postponed from time to time for as long as the government might require; in other 
words, the government can prevent the naturalization of an enemy alien, if 
It sees fit, no matter what stage of the process of naturalization he may have 
reached before war is declared. 

This law also contained a provision allowing the President to exempt an alien 
enemy from that classification, so that he might then apply for naturalization, 
provided the Department of Justice, after making an investigation, reported favorably 
on the loyalty of the enemy alien. 

Apparently an alien woman was allowed to become a citizen by marriage even 

during war. There was no ruling on this point-i. e., as to whetjher a German 

woman that married an American citizen during the war became a citizen. 

Alien enemies were permitted to take out their first papers during the war. 


NATURALIZA¬ 
TION OF 
ENEMIES 
DURING WAR 


17 



EXPATRIATION 
BY ENLIST¬ 
MENT IN 
FOREIGN 
ARMIES 


HOW SUCH 
SOLDIERS MAY 
ACQUIRE 
AMERICAN 
CITIZENSHIP 
AGAIN 


A RESIDENT 


A CITIZEN 


A VOTER 


Change of Citizenship by American Citizens During War 

An American citizen is not allowed to change his citizenship wlhile the country 
is at war. 

American citizens who enlisted in the armies of foreign countries during the 
recent war thereby expatriated themselves, because they were obliged to taJke the 
oath of allegiajice to the country under whose flag they enrolled. In the early 
days of the war, there were occasional cases when such Americans, or ex-Americans, 
returning to this country while on furlough, were considered aliens, and were 
held subject on their entry to the immigration laws. 

In order to relieve these soldiers from this unexpected consequence of their 
enlistment. Congress passed a law on October 5, 1917, providing a method by which 
a former American citizen who might be deemed to have expj<triated himself by 
taking such an oath of allegiance to any foreign state engaged in war with 
a country with which the United States was at war, and who actually 
did enlist in such foreign service might resume the character and privileges of 
an American citizen when Ihe was discharged.) This method was altered by 

a provision in the act of May 9, 1918, which provides that such a person 
can resume his citizenship by taking the oath of allegiance to the United 

States prescribed by the naturalization law and regulations, before any court of 
the United States or of any state authorized to naturalize citizens, or before 
a United States consul. Certified copies are sent by the court or the consul to 
the Department of State and the Bureau of Naturalization. 

The Difference Between Residents, Citizens, and Voters 

A resident is a person who merely has his abode, his place of living, in this 
country. An alien may come here for only a short time, or he may intend to stay all 
his life. He is not a citizen, however, unless Ihe renounces his present citizenship 
and takes out naturalization papers here. And of course he is not a voter. 

In other words, a person may be a resident without being either a citizen or a voter. 

A citizen is a person ivlho may or may not live here, but who owes this country 

his allegiance and looks to it for protection. He is a member of its body politic, 

whether by birth or by choice. This country is the political organization of which 
he is a member. 

The citizen, as said above, may or may not be a resident; he usually is; but 
he does not cease to be a citizen because he may have lived or may choose to live 
for five or ten years or for all t^he rest of his life in China or Mexico or Peru. 

The citizen may or may not be a voter. He ordinarily is, especially if he is a 
resident; but it sometimes happens that he loses his vote, for the time, through care¬ 
lessness or through frequent changes of abode. 

The voter is that particular citizen that can meet the requirements of the electoral 
law, wfhich prescribes certain qualifications for voting. A voter, for instance, must 
be twenty-one years old; therefore a child of ten, though a citizen because he was 
born here, cannot be a voter. And a voter must have been a resident of the state 
for one year, of the county for four months, and of the election district in which he 
offers his vote for thirty days; so that a citizen who had recently moved from one 
state to another, or who had very recently gone from one election district to another, 
might be for the time unable to vote, in spite of his undoubted citizenship. 


18 


PART III—NATURALIZATION 

Naturalization is entirely a judicial proceeding, carried out only by and in the 
courts. 

Courts With Power to Naturalize Aliens 

The only courts that have power to naturalize aliens are: 

1. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia; 

2. The United States District Courts; 

3. All courts of record in any state or territory that have a seal, a clerk, 
and jurisdiction in actions at law or equity, in which the amount in contro¬ 
versy is unlimited. 

Naturalization proceedings may be brought in either of these two series of courts, 
the United States District Courts or the State Supreme Courts. 

As a court may confer naturalization upon only those persons living in its juris¬ 
diction, i. e., its district, every applicant, either in the Federal courts or in the 
State Supreme courts, must determine which courts have jurisdiction over the place 
in which he or she lives and then make application in one of those courts. 

Any person wishing to go to the Federal Courts may make his 'declaration or 
file his petition with the clerk of the District Court that has jurisdiction over the 
county in which he lives. 

Applicants who choose the State Supreme Court may make their declarations 
and file their petitions with the County Clerk of the county in which the applicant 
lives. The County Clerk’s office is always at the county seat. 

The first paper, the declaration of intention, may be made at any time at the 
clerk's office, whether the court happens to be in session or not. The second paper, 
however, the petition for admission to citizensihip, must be acted upon in court, and 
will be acted upon by the various courts only at the times stated in notices given 
out by the courts. 

Applicants should go to the office of the County Clerk of their county, therefore, 
or to the District Court for their district. 

Every applicant for naturalization must appear in perso.n. 

No one may be naturalized and no certificate of naturalization may be issued by 
a court within thirty days before a general election in the district over which tjhe 
court has jurisdiction. Until 1918 declarations of intention could be made during 
this period; but now an alien is not allowed to make even his declaration of inten¬ 
tion to become a citizen on election day or during thirty days before the holding 
of any election in the district. 

How to be Naturalized 

There are two main steps in the process of becoming a naturalized citizen. These 
are often spoken of as getting “the first paper” and getting “the second paper.” 

The first step is to make what is called a declaration of intention to become a 
citizen of the United States. 


THE ONLY 
COURTS THAT 
MAY NATUR¬ 
ALIZE ALIENS 


NO NATURAL¬ 
IZATION 
WITHIN 30 
DAYS or 
ELECTIONS 


TWO STEPS IN 
NATURALIZA¬ 
TION PRO¬ 
CEDURE 

THE DECLARA¬ 
TION OF 
INTENTION 


19 


THE PETITION THc sccoiid Step is to obtain the final certificate of naturalization, through filing a 
^^ALizATioN petition for admission to citizenship, and satisfying the investigation made by the 
Bureau of Naturalization Examiners and the examination made by the judge at a 
hearing in open court. Each of these two steps is explained below. 


WHAT THE 

‘'first 
paper” is 


WHO MAY 
MAKE it 


when it 

MAY BE MADE 


WHERE IT 
MAY BE 
OBTAINED 


INFORMATION 
CALLED FOR 


WHO NEED 
NOT MAKE 
THE. 

DECLARATION 


The Declaration of Intention 

The declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States is a pre¬ 
liminary step to petitioning for and obtaining the status of citizenship in this country. 
It has seemed wiser to Congress to divide the process of acquiring citizenship into two 
steps, between which a definite period must elapse, than to allo\A' such a change of 
nationality to be made at one single step. 

The declaration may be made by any alien man or alien unmarried woman in this 
couintry who is eighteen years old. There are no other requirements. As has been 
stated before, a married woman cannot take out naturalization papers Iherself during 
the continuance of the marriage relation,” her husband has to do it for them both. 

The declaration may be made at any time after the alien lands. It may be done 
the day after he lands, or at any later time. 

All that it means is that the alien states under oath that he intends to stop being 
a citizen of the country from which he came, and to become a citizen of this country 
when he can satisfy the requirements for citizenship here. 

This first paper may, as previously stated, be obtained from the clerk of any 
court authorized to naturalize aliens. 

In order to make this declaration, the applicant goes himself to the court, and 
obtains from the clerk a blank form called “Facts for Declaration of Intention.” 
The applicant may fill out the form there or else take it home and fill it out at 
his leisure. 

The information that this form calls for includes the applicant’s name, age, occu¬ 
pation, personal description, place and date of birth, present residence, last foreign 
residence, the date of his arrival, the name of the vessel on which he came, or, if 
he did not come by sea, the character of the conveyance and the name of the trans¬ 
portation company that brought him; and he must also state that he intends to re¬ 
nounce his allegiance to the country of which he is then a citizen or subject, and 
that he is not a polygamist or an anarchist. 

After the alien has filled out this blank, he takes it to the clerk, who uses the 
information on it to fill up the formal certificate called the declaration of intention. 
The applicant takes oath to the truth of the statements on it, and the clerk signs 
and attests the certificate and gives it to the applicant to keep. 

There is a fee of one dollar for this declaration. 

The form of the declaration is reproduced on page 26. 

The following persons are excused from making the declaration of intention: 

1. Any alien serving in tihe military or naval forces of the United States 
during the present war. 

2. Any alien 21 years old or over who served in the Armies of die United 
States before Jan. 1, 1900, and was hoiiiorably discharged. 

3. The widow or the children of a man wTo made his declaration but who 
died before completing the process. 


20 


4. The widow and children of a man who became insane after making his 
declaration. 


Effect of Making' the Declaration 

Making this declaration of intention does not make the alien an American citizen. 
He still remains a citizen or subject of the country from which he came. 

In recognition, however, of the fact that he has announced his intention to become 
a citizen at some later time, the Federal government and various state and local 
governments often give him privileges denied to aliens that have not taken this first 
step. 

The Federal government will give a man wlho has made this declaration aiuf 
who has lived in this country for three years a passport that will entitle him 
to the protection of this country in any foreign country except the one from which 
he came. Not being a citizen, he cannot claim protection; but because he has taken 
the first step toward becoming a citizen, the government gives him this limited or 
qualified protection. 1 his passport is good for only six months, and cannot be 
renewed. 


DOES NOT 

CHANGE 

CITIZENSHIP 

CERTAIN PRIV- 
LEGES GIVEN 
BY FEDERAL 
GOVERNMENT 


Such an alien may make a homestead entry and take out lands under the land 
laws of the United States. 

T. he charters and ordinances of various cities and towns also give him certain local 

• M U • 1 1-1. , , . GOVERNMENTS 

privileges, such as the right to obtain a license as hackman, cabman, junk dealer, 
peddler, push-cart man, etc., the right to be employed on public w'orks, or run a 
newsstand. 


The Petition for Naturalization 


The second step in the process of naturalization is to file the petition for admis¬ 
sion to full citizenship. 

This cannot be done until two years have gone by since the applicant declared 
his intention to become a citizen. There must be two years between the two steps. 

It also cannot be done until the applicant has lived continuously in this country 
for five years; so that if he took out his first paper soon after he landed, in order 
to get the benefit of tihe privileges it confers, he will have to wait more than two 
years, i. e., till the five years are up, before he can take the second step. 

To take an example: Suppose an alien landed in New York City on January 1, 
1917; he cannot apply to become a citizen for five years, not till January 1, 1922. 
He may declare his intention, if he likes, on the day after he lands, or he may wait 
until later; in any case, however, he cannot get his second papers till he lhas lived 
here for five years. And if he neglects or forgets to make his declaration until he has 
been here for six or seven years, he still has to wait to take the second step till it is two 
years since he took the first one, even though that will make more than five years 
that he has been in this country. 


THE “second 

paper” 

WHEN IT 
MAY BE MADE 


The declaration of intention is valid only for seven years. If the alien does not declaration 

GOOD FOR 

go alhead and take the second step within seven years, his declaration is worthless only seven 
and he must make a new one and then wait another two years before taking the ^^^rs 
second step. This time limit of seven years was established to prevent men from 
obtaining through their declaration most of the rights and privileges of a citizen, 


21 



THREE 
THINGS TO 
REMEMBER 


INFORMATION 
CALLED FOR 


FORMER 

ALLEGIANCE 

RENOUNCED 


WHAT PAPERS 
MUST AC¬ 
COMPANY THE 
PETITION 


TWO 

WITNESSES 

NECESSARY 


even including, in some Western states, the right to vote, while still being exempted 
from the duties of citizenship, such as jury service and military service. 

The United States Supreme Court recently decided that this rule applies to all 
declarations, including those made before June 29, 1906, when the seven year limit 
was first imposed. 

Three points must be remembered: 

1. An alien cannot take the second step till he has lived here continuously 
for five years. 

2. He cannot take it till two years after he took the first step. 

3. He must take it within seven years after he took the first step, or else 
take the first one over again. 

How to File the Petition for Naturalization 

In order to take this second step in the process of becoming a citizen, the ap¬ 
plicant goes to court and obtains another form called “Facts for 'Petition for Natu¬ 
ralization.” He can fill out the form there or take it away and fill it out at his 
leisure. He may go to a different court for the second paper, if he has changed 
his residence. 

On this blank or form he must give, in addition to tlhe facts he gave before in 
making his declaration of intention, information on several other matters. He is 
required to state the time when he obtained his first paper, and the place, and name 
of the court. If he is a married man he gives the name of his wife, the country 
where slhe was born, and the place where she is living at the time when he files the 
petition. If he has any children, he gives the name of each child, with the place 
and date of its birth, and the place where each one is living at the time wfhen he 
files the petition. He must also state that he is not a disbeliever in organized gov¬ 
ernment, or a member of a body that teaches disbelief in organized government, and 
that he is not a polygamist. He must also state whether or not he (has been denied 
admission to citizenship before, and if so, on what grounds. 

He also states that he intends to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and 
fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty^ 

He then takes this form back to the clerk, who fills out the formal petition for 
naturalization in accordance with the information on the blank. The clerk takes 
the applicant’s oath to the truth of all his statements, and the applicant signs the 
petition himself. By the present law, he must be able to write his name. 

Certain other papers must accompany the petition. These include the applicant’s 
certificate of declaration of intention, and what is called a certificate of 
arrival, i. e., a certificate obtained from the Bureau of Immigration stating the 
date and place of the applicant’s arrival in this country. A blank form for this 
certificate may be obtained at the office of the clerk. This certificate must be ob¬ 
tained only by persons that arrived after June 29, 1906. 

The affidavits of two witnesses must also accompany the petition. These two 
witnesses have to take oath that they personally know that the applicant has lived 
in the United States for the five years immediately preceding his application, ajid in 
the state or district in which he applies for the last year; and that they know him 
to be of good character, attadhed to the principles of the constitution, and in every 


22 


way qualified, in their mind, to be admitted as a citizen of the United States. These 
witnesses must be citizens, but may be either native or naturalized citizens. 

A copy of tihe petition for naturalization is reproduced on page 27. notice 

The clerk files the petition, with the certificate of arrival, the declaration of in- sen?to^^° 
tention, and the affidavits of the two witnesses. The applicant pays a fee of four Washington 
dollars. The clerk posts a notice of the alien’s application in his office, or in the 
building in which his office is situated, and also sends a copy of the petition to 
the Bureau of Naturalization in Washington within thirty days. 

The examiners attached to rfie Bureau of Naturalization make a careful invest?- 
gation of all the statements made by the applicant and by his witnesses, during the nsrvESTicATioN 
next ninety days or during such longer period as may be necessary. No action can 
be taken on the petition until at least ninety days have gone by; and during this 
period the examiners make all possible tests into the applicant’s character and fitness 
for citizenship. 


Qualifications for Citizenship 

It is in connection with this step of becoming a citizen that the applicant’s ability 
to meet the requirements for naturalization is tested.. 

These requirements are: 

1. He must be twenty-one years old or over. 

2. He must have lived continuously in the United States for the five years 
immediately preceding his application, and in the state or district in which he 
applies for one year. 

3. He must be able to speak the English language, and to sign his or her 
name. The provision that the alien must be able to “speak” English does not 
apply to aliens physically incapable of speaking. 

4. He must be of good character, and must not be a disbeliever in or op¬ 
posed to organized government, or a member of an organization teaching dis¬ 
belief in organized government, or a polygamist. 

5. He also, by a recent law, cannot be naturalized if he withdrew his 
declaration of intention during the war in order to avoid military service. 

The applicant may be of any age over twenty-one. 

The five years of residence here must be continuous. The applicant is not per¬ 
mitted to piece together two terms of residence here. If he lived here for three 
years, then went away for a time, tihen came back and lived here for two years, this 
does not qualify him; the five years must be continuous. And it will not do if he 
has lived here for five or ten years and then went back to his old country to live 
there, and then decided after a few years to return to the United States; he cannot 
use his previous term of residence here, even though he was here for much longer 
than the necessary time; he must have been here continuously for the five years 
immediately preceding his application. 

The requirement of five years’ residence is waived for the following persons: 

1. Aliens who served in the Armies of the United States before Jan. 1, 1900, 
and were honorably discharged; they need prove only one year’s residence. 

2. Any alien serving in the military or naval forces of the United States 
during the present war. 

3. Filippino declarants wiho enlisted and were honorably discharged from 


QUALIFICA¬ 
TIONS FOR 
CITIZENSHIP 


RESIDENCE 
MUST BE 
CONTINUOUS 


RESIDENCE 
WAIVED IN 
CERTAIN 
CASES 


23 


FINAL 

HEARING 


UNITED 
STATES 
MAY INTER¬ 
VENE 


JUDGE 

EXAMINES 

APPLICANTS 


OATH OF 
ALLEGIANCE 


the Navy, Marine Corps, or Naval Auxiliary Service, after 3 years’ service; 
Porto Ricans in the Federal or State military or naval forces; aliens wFo 
served for 3 years on a government vessel, or a merchant or fishing vessel; 
declaraints who served in the Phillipine Constabulary or the Army or Navy. 

The qualifications of character and residence must be proved by the two witnesses 
jireviously referred to. 

The witnesses must accompany the apjilieant when he files his petition, and when 
he is examined. The Bureau of Naturalization examiners may call the applicant 
up for examination; if so, the witnesses should accompany him. If any witness is 
unwilling to come, the applicant has the right to a subpoena that will compel him 
to attend. 

, The Final Hearing 

The final action on the applicant’s petition consists of a final hearing in court, 
at which tihe applicant and his witnesses must be examined under oath before the 
court and in the presence of the court. Every final hearing must be in open court. 
'Ehe applicant receives due notice of the time set for this hearing. 

If the witnesses the applicant named in filing his petition cannot be produced at 
this final hearing, he may summon other witnesses. In this case some courts require 
that the petition with the names of the mew witnesses be posted again for ninety days. 

It should be noted here that no person may be naturalized, and no certificate of 
naturalization issued, by any court within the thirty days next preceding a general 
election in the district over which the court has jurisdiction. Since May 9, 1918, it 
has not been lawful to make even a declaration of intention on election day, or for 
thirty days before the day for holding any election in the jurisdiction of the court. 

The United States authorities, by the naturalization law, have the right to appear 
at this hearing for the purpose of cross-examining the petitioner and his witnesses 
concerning any matter affecting his rigiht to be admitted to citizenship, and may 
call witnesses, produce evidence, and be heard generally in opposition to the granting 
of any petition in naturalization proceedings. 

At this final hearing the judge examines the applicant, asking him, in English, 
questions designed to test the truth of his statements about his residence here and 
the extent of his knowledge of the forms of government and the principles of our 
constitution, and his attachment to them; he asks him questions concerning the 
duties and privileges of a citizen, the names of various officials of the nation, the 
state and the city, and so on. 

The Oath of Allegiance 

If the judge is satisfied that the applicant is qualified to become a citizen of tIhe 
United States, he administers to him the following oath of allegiance: 

“I do hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and 
abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sov 

ereignty, and particularly to . the . 

of ., of whom I have heretofore been a subject; that I 

will support and defend the Constitution and Laws of the United States of 
America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and that I will bear true 
faith and allegiance to the same, so help me God.” 





Ill case the alien has borne any hereditary title, or has belonged to any of the 
orders of nobility im the kingdom or state from which he came, he is required 
to make an express renunciation of his title or order of nobility in the court 
to which his application is made, and his renunciation is recorded in the court. 

The court may also, in its discretion, and as a part of the naturalization pro¬ 
ceedings, make a decree changing the name of the applicant, if the applicant 
requests. 

After the judge has signed the order of admission, tfhe clerk of the court then 
issues a certificate of naturalization to the new citizen, in which, after a recital of 
the facts, it is stated that the court thereupon ordered that the applicant be ad¬ 
mitted as a citizen of the United States of America. 

1 his ends the procedure of naturalization. 


RhNUNClA- 
TION OF TITLE 
OK ORDER OF 
NOBILITV 


CHANGE OF 
NAME 


The Benefits of Citizenship 

A citizen is ^titled to the protection of his country'at an}- time and at any place, 
either at Ihome or in foreign lands. 

A citizen may vote at all elections, and may participate in any political action. 

He has the power, through his vote, to expiess his preferences and convictions as 

to the conditions under which he lives. 

A citizen may hold an}' public office unless specific (|ualiflcations are attached to 
it which he cannot meet. 

A male citizen may serve on juries, and is subject to service in the militia or 
in the Federal draft army that has for the present taken its place. Women citizens 
are now excluded from both army service and from jury duty in New York State. 

A citizen may pursue any lawful profession, trade, calling or occupation, some 
of which, such as law, are open only to citizens, and others of which, such as work¬ 
ing on public works, are open to declarants. He may also join labor uniotis, 
which in some cases make citizenship a qualification for membership. 

A citizen may hold any office of private trust, such as guardian or executor. 

A citizen may participate in the benefits of any social service laws, from some 

of which aliens are at times excluded, e. g., mothers’ pension laws. 


PROTECTION 


POLITICAL 

RIGHTS 


PUBLIC 

OFFICE 

JURY DUTY 
AND ARMY 
SERVICE 

TRADES AND 
OCCUPATIONS 


PR1V,\TE 

TRUSTS 


BENEFITS 
OF soriAi 

SKR'.-irF. LAWS 


NATURALIZATION FORMS 


DECLARATION OF INTENTION 

Invalid /or all Purposes Seveii Years After the Date Hereof. 

In tihe.Court 

ss: 

of.’. 

I, ., aged . years, occupation . do declare on 

oath that my personal description is: Color ., complexion ., 

height . feet . inches, weight . pounds, color of hair .. color of 

eyes ., other visible distinctive marks . I was born in . 

on the.day of., anno Domini I.; I now reside at. I emi¬ 
grated to the United States of America from . on the vessel .; 

my last foreign residence was . It is my bona fide intention to 

renounce forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, 

or sovereignty, and particularly to., of whom I am now a subject; I arrived 

at the port of ., in the State of ., on or about the . 

day of ., anno Domini 1.; I am not an anarchist; I am not a polyga¬ 

mist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good 
faitlh to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently 
reside therein; So help me God. 


(Original signature of declarant.) 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this . 

[seal] day of ., arnno Domini 192. 


1 


Clerk of the. Court. 

By . Clerk. 


26 







































PETITION FOR NATURALIZATION 


I'o the Honorable the . Court of .. 

The petition of ... hereby filed, respectfully showeth: 

First. My place of residence is . 

Second. My occupation is . 

Third. I was born on the . day of . anno Domini 1. 

at . 

Fourth. I emigrated to the United States from ., on or about 

the .day of.anno Domini 1., and arrived in the United States, 

at the port of ., on the . day of . anno Domini 1., 

on the vessel . 

Fifth. I declared my intention to become a citizen of the United States on 

the . day of ., anno Domini 1. at ., in the . 

Court of . 

Sixth. I am. married. My wife’s name is. She was born 

in ., and now resides at . I have . children, and the 

name, date and place of birth, and place of residence of each of said children is as 
follows: . 

Seventh. I am not a disbeliever in or opposed to organized goveimment or a 
member of or affiliated with any organization or body of persons teaching disbelief 
in or opposed to organized government. I am not a polygamist nor a believer in 
tihe practice of polygamy. I am attached to the principles of the Constitution of 
the United States, and it is my intention to become a citizen of the United States 
and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign 

prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to . of whom at 

this tim€ I am a subject, and it is my intention to reside permanently in the United 
States. 

Eighth. I am able to speak the English language. 

Ninth. I have resided continuously in the United States of America for the 
term of five years at least, immediately preceding the date of this petition, to wit, 

since the.day of. anno Domino 1., and in the State of ., 

continuously next preceding tihe date of this petition, since the .day of . 

anno Domini 1., being a resident within this State of at least one year next 

preceding the date of this petition. 

Tenth. I have not heretofore made petition for citizenship to any court. (I made 

petition for citizenship to the . Court of . at ., on the 

day of ., anno Domini 1., and the said petition was denied 

by the said Court for the following reasons and causes, to wit, ., and 

the cause of such denial has since been cured or removed.) 

Attached hereto and made a part of this petition are my declaration of intention 
to become a citizen of the United States and the certificate from the Department of 
Labor, together with my affidavit and the affidavits of the two verifying witnesses 
thereto, required by law. Wherefore your petitioner prays that he may be admitted 
a citizen of the United States of America. 


(Complete and true signature of petitioner.) 


Declaration of Intention and 
ment of Labor filed this . 


Certificate of Arrival No. 
day of .. 192. 


from Depart- 





















































QUESTION AND ANSWER REVIEW 


Who are Citizens 

Q. What is a cltizeiii ? 

A. A citizen is a person that belongs to a country. 

Q. Is every one that lives in a country a citizen of it? 

A. No; a person can live in a country wit'hout being a citizen; there are many 
immigrants living in this country, for instance, that have never become citizens. 

Q. What is the difference between a citizen and a resident? 

A. It is something like the difference between a member of a family and a visitor. 

Q. What is the difference between citizens and voters? 

A., d'he difference is that voters are those particular citizens that ca'.i meet the 
requirements of the electoral laws. 

Q. Why cannot all citizens meet those requirements? 

A. One requirement is tihat the voter must be 21 years old; so a child of ten, 
though a citizen, could not meet that one. And there are other requirements, 
principally of residence, that a citizen might not be able to meet. 

Q. How does a person get to be a citizen of this country? 

A. There are only two ways;' by birth and by naturalization. 

Q. What do you mean by a citizen by birth? 

A. A citizen by birth is any person that was born within the territory of the 
United States. 

Q. Wihat if its paretits were not citizens? 

A. That does not matter; this country regards as a citizen every child born on 
American soil, no matter what country its parents were citizens or subjects of. 

Q. But suppose the child’s parents belong to a race, like the Chinese, that cannot 
be naturalized Ihere? Is the child of such a race a citizen, merely because it was 
born here, although our law says members of that race canmot be naturalized? 

A. Yes, the child of Chinese parents who are living here when the child was 
born is an American. The law says only that members of that race cannot be 
naturalized, but it does not say that they cannot be citizens by birth. 

Q. Can any other person be a citizen by birth except persons born in the United 
States ? 

A., Yes, the children of American fathers living abroad are regarded as citizens, 
provided the father ever was a resident in this country. 

Q. Then if John Smith was born in London, where his father was living for ten 
years, ever since he went over from the United States an business, John would be 
a citizen ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. But if John’s father had always lived in PAirope, John would not be a 

citizen, though his father was? 

A. No, he would not be a citizen. 

Q. Does John have to do anything to keep up his American citizeiiship ? 

A. Yes; when he is 18 years old he must go to am American consulate and 
record his intention to become a resident of this country and to remain a citizen 
of it; and when he is 21 he must take the oath of allegiance. 

Q. Has every person a right to dhange his citizenship? 

A. Generally speaking, yes; but we do not allow a citizen to change his alle¬ 
giance while the country is at war. 

Q.! Is this right universally recognized ? 

A. No; some countries hold that a citizen or subject that wants to change 


his citizenship must ask for their permission, and they consider that any chancre 
made witihout their permission is not valid. 

Q. What position does the United States take? 

A. We believe that the right to say under what conditions a person wants to 
live is one of the things that are essential to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Q. Then we are willing to take in any person as a citizen without asking their 
former government for permission? 

A. We are willing to take in any properly qualified person; and we are also 
willing to let any America.!! go that wants to—except, as we said before, during war. 

Q. What is meant by “properly qualified”? Can any person be naturalized? 

A. No; it was stated a moment ago tihat Chinese could .not be naturalized; the 
law says that only two classes of persons may be naturalized, i.e,, free white aliens, 
and persons of African nativity and descent. 

Q. Was that always the law? 

A. No, at first only free white persons could be naturalized; then after the Civil 
War, after the slaves had been freed, a.nd were to be citizens, the law was altered 
in that way. 

Q. Just who is it that cannot be naturalized? 

A. The Chinese and Japanese are excluded; and every now and then a question 
comes up whether a man from Burma or Armenia or some other Asiatic country 
is white or not. The law on this point is not altogether settled. 

The Citizenship of fVof?ien 

Q. What is the law about a woman’s citizenship? 

A. The law is that the question of her citizenship depends on whether s!he is 
a single woman or a married woman. 

Q. What is the difference? 

A. The difference is that if she is single her citizenship depends entirely on 

herself, just as a man’s does; and if she is married it depends entirely on what her 

husband does. 

Q. What do you mean by saying it depends on herself? 

A. The citizej!ship of a single woman depends on where she born, to begin with, 

and then on whether she herself has done anything to change that first citizenship, 
like taking out naturalization papers. She can keep it, or change it, or change it 
twice, or take the first one back again, or do whatever she wants. 

Q. But cannot a married woman change hers? 

A. No, a married woman takes her husband’s citizenship, whatever it may be; 
hers is entirely dependent on his. 

Q, But suppose he changes his? 

A. Then hers changes, too. 

Q. Whether she wants it to or .not ? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Suppose he refuses to become a citizen ? 

A. Then she cannot become one either. 

Q. Can she not take out naturalization papers herself? 

A. No; she can do that only through her husband. 

Q. But what if he will not do it? 

A. She cannot do it even the.n. 

Q. If she is a citizen, and marries an alien, what then? 

A. Then she becomes an alien. 

Q. And if she is an alien and marries a citizen? 

A. J'hen she becomes a citize.n. She becomes whatever he is. 

Q. If she is an alien, and marries an alien, who afterward becomes a citizen, 
what then ? 

A. She becomes a citizen, too, automatically, whenever he does. 

29 


Q. Does she become a citizen w^en he does, without doing anything? 

A. Yes, without doing anything at all. 

Q. But the man has to meet certain tests in order to be .naturalized; does not she? 

A. No, she becomes a citizen when he does, without meeting any of the 

requirements. 

Q. But the husband, or a single woman, cannot become naturalized without 

being able to speak English; does not the married woman fhave to be able to speak 

English ? 

A. No. 

Q. Nor have been in this country for five years? 

A. No; she becomes a citizen by marriage even if she never comes to this country. 

Q. Does she not have to take the oath of allegiance? 

A. No. 

Q. Nor prove that she understands the principles of our government, and is 
attached to the principles of tihe constitution? 

A. No. 

Q. Does she not even have to be of good character? 

A. No. The law says she becomes a citizen by marriage to a citizen if she 
“might herself be lawfully naturalized,” and all that the phrase means, according 
the courts, is that she must belong to one of the races tliat may be lawfully natural¬ 
ized, i.e., she cannot become a citizen by marriage if she is a Japanese or Chinese 
woman. 

Q. When a woman becomes a citizen by marriage, what (happens to her citizen¬ 
ship when her husband dies? Does that end her citizenship? 

A. No, our law is, once a citizen always a citizen, unless the person himself 
choses to end it. Our law does not recognize any qualified or limited citizenship. 
If the woman becomes a citizen at all, she becomes a citizen for all purposes and 
for all time. 

Q. Then wfhen he dies she continues to be a citizen? 

A. She does if she wants to. If she goes on living here she is supposed to keep 
it; if she does not want to keep it she must go before a court that has jurisdiction 
to naturalize aliens, and renounce it formally. If she happens to be living abroad, 
she can keep it by going before a United States consul within one year and registering 
as a citizen. 

Q. Does she lose her citizensihip if thev are divorced ? 

A. No. 

Q. Supjx>se her husband deserts her? 

A. As long as she has not been divorced from him she is still his wife, and has 
to keep whatever citizenship he has. If he is an alien, and (has deserted her, no 
matter for how long, she cannot apply to be naturalized herself. 

Q. When a citizen woman marries an alien husband, who dies, how can she 
get back her American citizenship? 

A. If she is living (here at the time, the only thing she has to do is to go on 
living here. If she is living in Europe, she has to do one of two things, either 
come back here to live, or else register as an American citizen with an American 
consul within one year. 

Q. What rights has a widow as to being naturalized ? 

A. She has exactly the same rights as a single woman; she can do whatever 
she likes. 

The Citizenship of Children 

Q. How does a child become a citizen? 

A. By birth, or by the naturalization of its parents or guardians. 

30 


Q. Hovv’ does a dhild become naturalized by the naturalization of its parents? 

A. The general rule is that the child has whatever citizenship its father has. If 
an Italian family comes here, the children of it are Italians, like their father, when 
they come, and if he becomes a citizen tihey do too. 

Q. Are there amy limitations to this rule? 

A. Yes, they become citizens when he does only if he becomes a citizen while 
they are still under 21, and if they are living here when he becomes a citizen, or 
else come to live here before they are 21. 

Q. How can citizenship be lost, after a man or woman acquires it? 

A. If the naturalized citizen goes back to live in the country he came from, and 
stays there two years, he is presumed to have lost his American citizenship; and 
the same thing is true if he goes and lives in any country for five years. 

Q. What do you mean by saying he is presumed to have lost it? 

A. We mean that tihat is the way it is regarded; he is considered to have intended 
to forfeit it; but if he can show some real reason for being away so long, without 
meaning to forfeit it, then he does not lose it. He has a chance to explain, is what 
it means.. He can overcome the presumption against him by going to a diplomatic 
or consular representative and presenting satisfactory evidence about why he has 
been away so long. 

How to be Naturalized 

Q. What does the process of naturalization consist of? 

A. It consists of two steps—one a preliminary step called making the declaration 
of intention to become a citizen, and the other called a petition for citiczenship. 

Q. When may these steps be taken ? 

A. The first step may be taken at any time after landing here. The second 
cannot be taken till two years after the first one has been taken; and not until the 
applicant has been in this counry for five years. 

Q. How long is the first paper good? 

A. Only for seven years; if the applicant does not go ahead and take the second 
step within that time, he has to take the first step over again. 

Q. What courts have jurisdiction to naturalize aliens? 

A.. Roth Federal and State courts; the Federal courts that do it are the United 
States District Courts, and the State courts are the Supreme Courts. 

Q. What are the requirements for naturalization? 

A. Residence for five years in the country, and for one year in the state or 
district in wfhich the application is made; age of twenty-one years; good character; 
ability to speak English, and to sign one s name; some understandimg of the prin¬ 
ciples of the constitution, and of our form of government. 

Q. How does the applicant prove these things? 

A. Partly by his own oath and own testimony, but mainly by the oaths and 
testimony of two witnesses, who swear that they have known him personally, know 
tihat he has really been here for five years and that he is a person of good character 
who will make a good citizen. 

Q. What are the fees for naturalization ? 

A. They amount to $5, $1 for the first paper and $4 for the secoaid; but as the 
applicant must take his witnesses with him at least two or three times, and often 
more, if his case is not reached and he must come again, it may cost him much 
more than tihat. 

Q. What are the benefits of citizenship? 

A. The benefits are, that a man or woman has something to say about the con¬ 
ditions under which he lives; and that he or sihe has it in his power to help to 
defend and protect the country to which he belongs. It protects him and he 
helps to defend it. The citizen also has different property rights and different 
personal rights from an alien; he may engage in any lawful calling and carry on 
any lawful business; and he may hold office, and fill any private trusts. 


NEW YORK STATE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS 
Mrs. Frank A. Vanderlip, Chairman 


COMMITTEE ON AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 
Esther Everett Tape, Chairman 


COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 
Mrs. Caspar Whitney, Chairman 


For copies of this pamphlet, at ten cents each, apply to 

EDUCATION COMMITTEE, NEW YORK STATE LEAGUE OF 
WOMEN VOTERS 

37 West 39th Street :: :: New York City 








